A Catholic SOcial Society for girls aged 10-17

“Let us leave acts, not words. No one will have time to read us.” St. Madeleine Sophie Barat

Who We Are

The Goretti Girls, named after St Maria Goretti, was founded to gather together the Catholic girls and young women scattered around the UK in a bid to reclaim our femininity and purpose as women, as well as to establish strong bonds of friendship between us. The society, inspired by the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (founded by St Madeline Sophie Barat), aims:

  • to build and foster genuine friendships between girls and young women in order to lay a foundation for a strong female community that will take us from the present to our adult lives out in the world.

  • to provide opportunities to learn valuable feminine skills and accomplishments and to encourage, develop and maintain those which we already have and enjoy doing.

  • to learn how to love being a woman and nurture a desire to be a great one.

  • to discover the value of actually being female as opposed to finding oneself by “becoming and acting like a man” - taking joy in feminine skills and having fun being a woman!

Just because you’re over 17, doesn’t mean you are unable to be a Goretti Girl! Please come and join us. Our aim as a society is to bring young women and girls together to establish unity and friendship between like-minded females! We need helpers and girls to have a laugh with - sign up!

Meet the Committee

  • Anna Barrett

    Chair

  • Lottie Harvey-Craig

    Vice-Chair

  • Lucy Barrett

    Social Secretary

  • Katie Pickstone

    Treasurer

  • Claire Barrett

    Secretary

Join us

Meet the chair

Anna is a second year student at Cambridge, reading Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. A Roman Catholic, she is the eldest of six children, who before joining Ampleforth College, was homeschooled by her mother until 13 years old.

On leaving school, Anna found that the creation of an organic friendship group of likeminded women was nearly impossible. Not only are Catholics few and far between in the UK but there also was a lack of provision for female young adult societies, and next to none for teenage girls, especially for those who were homeschooled. She then began preparing for a Shakespeare Play camp in her garden for seventeen girls between 10 and 17, with the aim of combining a high-level and rewarding project with the opportunity to enkindle friendships between young girls and women. The success of this event kickstarted her desire to spread this opportunity to more girls and to expand this initiative into a dedicated society for women.